Local company, grocery store collect items for Puerto Rico
By Heather Ruenz
SLN staff
Medplast of Elkhorn, a custom rubber molding manufacturer in the medical device industry, has teamed up with Frank’s Piggly Wiggly to help the victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
“Medplast has a sister company in Puerto Rico. We have had reports that our sister plant is up and running but that several of the team members have lost their homes or had significant damage to their property or household goods, some losing everything,” Dawn Soto, human resources manager at Medplast, said.
Although cell service is slowly being restored and fuel is becoming more readily available, Soto said, electricity is not expected to come back online anytime soon.
“Thanks to the generosity of local store owners Frank and Stephanie Lueptow, of Frank’s Piggly Wiggly, and patrons of the store, we are sending a very large shipment of necessities to the Medplast plant in Puerto Rico,” Soto said.
“We have had an awesome response pulling together to help those in need and were able to ship more than $1,600 worth of goods,” she added.
The first shipment of donations from Frank’s, which has stores in Elkhorn and East Troy, has been sent on its way.
An Oct. 12 post on Frank’s Piggly Wiggly Facebook page thanked customers for their support.
“A big thank you to everyone who donated to the victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Representatives of Medplast picked up the donations this morning and will ship them to their sister plant in Puerto Rico. The grand total was $1,647.59! We are still collecting for a second shipment later next week,” the post states.
Soto said Medplast and Frank’s plan to continue collecting donations at least though the end of this week and maybe beyond that.
“A very special than you to Frank and Stephanie Lueptow – and their team at both the Elkhorn and East Troy locations. Thank you to those who donated. It is greatly appreciated,” she said.
